Too Few Physicians

Too Few Physicians

In its great wisdom the U.S. government capped the number of medical residencies in a 1997 law to contain costs. Each new resident costs the government $100,000 per student or $9.1 billion to teaching hospitals. It takes 8-10 years of schooling, residency and training to develop a primary care physician. Healthcare reform adds 30 million to the ranks and assuming an individual started school today, we’re 10 years away from a substantial number of new physicians. What were our lawmakers thinking? Even the public knows better. Unfortunately not many in the government are listening to the people. They’re listening to themselves, the political class.